August 2004. The Start...

A 1965 Plymouth, 53,000 original mile car...almost No Rust!

September 2004

9-8-04

Started drilling out spot welds...still not sure if I will go with the Leaf Spring set up  the torsion bar set up

9-12-04

More cutting!...First frame rail tacked in...so far so good!

Please excuse the chicken scratch welds...didn't have my 220V set up yet, I was using a 110V sheet mettle welder

9-14-04

after welding the second tower, I realized the first one was sitting at the wrong angle, hanging outwards too far... So I had to cut some welds bend a little bit and make some small brackets to fill in the gaps...So...It looks like shit...

9-16-04

Getting a little better with the stick....turned down the juice...tonight I finished the shock towers (I think), the break line brackets and threw together the beginnings if the cross member/engine mount....Tomorrow...order Hemi motor mounts, make templates out of cardboard for the inner fender wells....Right now the front end is so light, I can pick it off the jack stands with one hand! and I haven't even worked out in 2 months...Hmmm...

It's hard to see the car is off the Jack Stands...but here it is...one handed

The Mock Block with the Hilborn...soon to be EFI....selling the extras on eBay...the rare Moon Timing drive cover, which Moon doest make any more, the PG 150A Hilborn fuel pump, The Metering valve, Primary and Secondary by-pass valves, the 2 way fuel cut off, and the fram fuel filter. The Real block is supposedly on its way...Mopar, New Performance Hemi block with the 4.5" bore.

9-19-04

Inner fender wells in...just for fun, the mock up block...It is sitting a little high...but looks cool!

9-24-04

Got my mock up trani...test fitted engine & trani, tacked the engine mounts, cut out center to clear pan...I will probably weld a piece across the bottom of the engine mount cross member. Next I measured out where the K frame should go, marked the holes...dragged in the K frame, jacked it into position....drilled holes, bolted it up!. Next on the list will be the steering box, headers, bolt up the upper A arms and shocks....then figure out how I will do the torsion bars...Fabricate, or fork out $1,100 for a custom made set...

9-25-04

More mock up...

Rich was right...I had to notch the driver's motor mount for the solid engine mounts. There are a nice set of used TTI headers...They are a little large...and make things rather tight...especially around the torsion bars...I made some adjustments, and they seem to clear now. Tomorrow I will try out my idea to get around the expensive torsion bars. Even going with a set of coilovers would make SOOOO much room. Well hopefully when the real motor is in...with some real weight on the front end...I wont have to dent the headers for clearance.

9-26-04

Looks like my idea worked! Take a look!

9-28-04

Started disassembling....going to touch up some welds, clean up a few spots...do the steering....then hopefully  ready to start prepping the engine area for primer and paint....just what color???? Original Gold? White????

9-30-04

touched up some welds...having trouble with torsion bar sockets and my welding abilities...Well the car is on the ground on it's four wheels! I do think...and I'm worried that the torsion bar socket holders are a bit low...they are only about 3 inches lower...to clear the headers and the back suspension is not lifted yet, so that should remedy the problem. I should loosen the bars and see how much they clear the ground with the front suspension bottomed out ...tomorrow! Oh, also notched the engine mount cross member to clear the future u-joint on the steering box. Tomorrow I should have those parts in. Not too much else to do before priming the font section...then move to the rear and start cutting!

10-5-04

Ok...I went a couple of days without posting or photos...

Finished hooking up the steering. Started on the back half! Drilling out spot welds are a pain in the derrière! The spot weld bits keep crumbling! my fattest drill bit is now dull...ugh! I ordered some from Eastwood...they were pretty expensive...so they better work! otherwise my trusty saws-all will be working overtime! So far I have cut the floor, cut out the wheel well openings on the inside (after removing the window mechanisms), then cut the roof and trunk hinge supports off the wheel wells, as well as removing the X brace behind the rear seat.

The trunk before I start butchering it up!

9-7-04 & 9-8-04

I am The Butcher!

got the dam front shackle brackets loose...then I started on the body!

10-8-04

We have movement! Right now...almost 15 inches...a little trimming and a little kicking and we will be there!

10-11-04

Got out the come-a-long and pulled the floors together...started tacking them together....actually have the car off the jack stands and the doors even open! Next, finish tacking, cut and place the rear frame pieces for the bumper support, cut sheet metal for he trunk floor and trunk wells in...the X brace under the package shelf, tie in the roof and package shelf to the wheel wells...Then on to the body!

10-12-04

finished welding the main floor boards. Made a stencil for the trunk pan, and experimented with the original cut out pieces. The sheet mettle feels stiffer, I might go with them and fabricate the dimple in the body with my sheet mettle.

These moving boxes sure come in handy!...templates, "Porto-Rican Creepers", just a shit load of uses!

10-21-04

Ok...my welder friend told me my welders sucked and didn't have enough amps! So, for now, I borrowed my buddy Jeff's Miller Migomatic 250...nice welder...I was looking at the 215 version to buy. maybe in a month or two...

So, I re-did the front frame main welds...added in frame connectors, started tying the quarters together. Waiting on a quote from Artmorrison.com for a cage...with a few extra bars and bends that a normal set up....then I can flip this baby up on it's side, remove the under coat, touch up some welds, and paint the bottom!

10-22-04

Still working on Quarters...and till a little more to do

10-25-04

Played around with the fuel injection setup...I came up with a simple and inexpensive way to take care of the lack of vacuum port problem. I still need to get some NPT to AN adaptors and some new rubber lines...as well as figure out how I will set up the fuel lines using the Hilborn pump with the EFI.

10-30 & 31-04

Added in some more braces...roof to trunk hinges, the cross brace and the corner pieces that hold them...removed the console brackets. Next, got the "Tilter" hooked up and tipped the car on it's side to do the floor bans and freshen up some welds. I originally didn't want to do this till I had the roll bar in.

11-01-04

Got in some more fuel injection lines and NPT to AN adaptors...so I stayed in the basement and tried to mock up the injection lines...Going out of my way to keep the "STOCK" look to this injection set up is getting out of hand! It is really cramped in there now!

11-02-04

The tedious job of scraping undercoating...fun fun

oh, and I will be doing over  more of my old welds now that there is easy access!

11-10-04

Got paint on the bottom....waiting for the roll cage...will start prepping the engine compartment

11-20-04

Prepping the engine bay....Zink Chromate primer and a little bondo

11-24-04

Got the paint on....after talking to some people, I decided to change torsion bars. I went with a set of C body bars...ground down the ends to the B socket size (about 1 1/4). The cut off the socket extensions and slid them in. They worked! But...they could have been a inch longer as so to sit against the c-clips...so I cut off two ends of some old B bars and welded them to one end...with my new welder...and it worked! Later I came back and repainted the suspension black.

Now things look closer to "Original"

12-1-04

Dropped the dummy motor and trani in....added the injection....marked the hood, and started cutting. I actually referenced Rich Lefebvre's Gold Dust photos

Since I am running an automatic, these stacks will be too short....they will need to be approximately 13 1/2 inches long....but it's still a nice view..."Aint it"

12-13-04

Got hold of a Hemi Crate Motor!

12-5-04

Started the roll bar...had to do some of my own bending....the front window post tubes didn't seem to match...thanks to the trucking company...I wondered why every pipe came by it's self...instead of being strapped together...Just tacking things up...already screwing up some of the fish-mouths...

12-8-04

The bars are coming along

12-11-04

the front clip bars were too short...the 10ich extension wasn't taken into account...so I improvised, I wanted them mainly for extra strength and stiffening for the front. The back rails are pretty close to their final resting place...just need to trim the bottoms, weld the plates and weld the bars in....then I can make a template for the rear area under the package tray and order the interior! The rest of the bars will wait till I get the actual seats to get everything right the first time.

12-18-04

a little more welding on these. Made the templates for the interior pieces...

12-31-04

Off to get the body and paint done!